Hanso's Winter

     Celandra turned to find Taelia. The winds and snow were no match for her coat. She moved toward Hanso and then reached out with both her arms. She then pulled Hanso out of the snow, lifting him into the air and then carrying him. She then stood in front of the wheelbarrow.

     “If you follow me, I’ll clear a path with my snow blowing spell,” she told Celandra. She then spoke to Hanso.

     “Hello, Hanso. I don’t think we’ve met, but Fyora’s told me all about you.”

     “Uhhh, hello Taelia, can you put me down? I can walk behind you too,” Hanso replied.

     “Don’t worry, I can take you back to the house.”

     “But it’s just… if word got out that…”

     “Shh…” Taelia said. “Your tongue will freeze if you keep talking. But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone what happened.”

     The three of them arrived at the doorstep. Taelia knocked. Queen Fyora answered the door and let them in.

     “Ah! Taelia, it’s good to see you. I see you’ve met Hanso now.”

     “Yes, Fyora. I did. He’s a little frozen though.”

     “I have firewood here to help thaw him out,” Celandra said.

     “I’m NOT frozen! I just got stuck in the snow!”

     Fyora patted Hanso on the head. “It’s okay Hanso. No need to get defensive. We are all here for you. Here, have a seat in front of the fireplace. I’ll get a fire going. You are more than welcome to stay, Taelia.”

     Taelia shook her head.

     “Oh, I would love to, but I can’t. I need to oversee some other Winter Starlight celebrations. I fear Kari will turn it into a Winter Negg Festival instead. However, I did make you something.”

     Taelia handed Fyora a small gift box. Fyora opened it to find a Snow Faerie Token, except it was modified to be pink instead of blue.

     “Taelia! This is beautiful!” Fyora exclaimed.

     “I’m glad you like it!” Taelia replied, smiling.

     “I have something for you too.” Fyora handed Taelia a larger box.

     Taelia peeked inside.

     “Aww! What a cute, knitted hat! That’s for me?” Taelia pulled out a blue hat. There was some white yarn knitted in the shape of Taelia’s igloo.

     “Of course!”

     “I’ll be sure to wear it sometime. Not right now, I have my hood pulled over me. But I love it! Anyways, I will leave you folks to it. Have a happy holiday!” Taelia waved at them, and then flew away in the direction of Terror Mountain’s summit.

     “Bye Taelia!” everyone said in unison.

     “Ah, let’s get a fire going now,” Fyora said.

     Fyora placed some of the firewood into the fireplace, pointed her staff at it, and suddenly, pink and purple flames shot out of her staff and set the wood ablaze.

     She then did the same thing with the stove, immediately adding a kettle of water atop the stove to get hot cocoa going.

     Meanwhile, on the table, there was a small bag of Neggs, presumably left by Kari so they could use them to decorate the house.

     Sadie somehow got into the bag and then began nibbling on a Negg and then took a big bite out of it. Unfortunately, since it wasn’t a cooked Negg, a yolky liquid spilt all over the ground.

     “Aww, darn.”

     Queen Fyora floated over to them to see what happened.

     “Oh dear, what a mess! Casandia, perhaps Sadie isn’t ready for Neggs yet,” Fyora said.

     Celandra showed up right behind Fyora with a mop.

     “Alright, let’s get this cleaned up!” she said with a sigh. Casandia and Brynn both helped with the cleanup effort. Meanwhile Fyora was working on some hot cocoa. She added her special cocoa mix into mugs and then added some pink marshmallows. She poured hot water into each mug and the drinks began to sparkle pink before settling down.

     “Now there we go, this will be guaranteed to warm your body and your soul too!” She handed Hanso and Brynn two full mugs of her hot cocoa.

     Hanso took a sip.

     “Ohh, this is good! That hits the spot!” he said.

     He then got up with the mug still in hand to go see what the commotion was with Sadie.

     “Hello, Sadie!” he said to the Darblat right into her face.

     “BLAT! BLAAAT!” Sadie appeared startled at Hanso was suddenly in her face. She jumped and flew right into Hanso’s face and then flew into Casandia’s arms. This caused Hanso to lose his balance and he lost his mug of hot cocoa, all over Fyora’s coat which was hanging on a rack next to him. There was a loud clang as the mug smashed onto the floor that Celandra just mopped. Celandra threw up her hands and sighed while Brynn gasped and buried her head into her paws.

     “Aww seriously,” Celandra muttered. She left to go find a broom to sweep up the shattered mug.

     “Bla-bla-b-blat!” Sadie said, shivering in fear in Casandia’s arms.

     “Hanso, you can’t jump in front of her like that. She’s just a little Darblat,” she scolded. “Awww, it’s okay sweetie. I’m here!” Casandia gently petted her Darblat. Sadie closed her eyes and relaxed.

     “Yikes!” Fyora exclaimed, staring at her coat. “It’s all stained now.”

     Fyora ran over and picked her coat off the ground and shook it a bit.

     “Well, I think I can still clean this with some of my magical detergent. Let me go and clean this now,” she said and then she disappeared to her room upstairs.

     Hanso turned to look at Brynn who nudged him a bit.

     “I’m going to help with some decorating,” Brynn said. “You can come with me, but something tells me that you want to help Fyora.”

     Hanso’s ears drooped and he nodded.

     “Yeah. She’s taking it so well, but this feeling. I haven’t felt like this before.”

     “You are feeling remorse, honey. That’s a step in the right direction. I’ll let you decide what to do though.” Brynn leaned over and gave Hanso a hug.

     Hanso made his way upstairs while Brynn went over to Casandia and Celandra who were starting to decorate house after cleaning up.

     There was a large box of ornaments and decorations along with a fir tree. Meanwhile, on the table sat some candles and decorative Neggs.

     Casandia picked up a wreath in the shape of Terask.

     “Terask? Isn’t he like an enemy of Fyora?” Casandia asked.

     “Yes, but he’s not real. It just looks cool,” Celandra replied. “She might not like it though so let’s put that away.”

     “Hmm, okay.” Casandia then decided to slice some Neggs and drain the yolks. Then the empty half Negg would fit a candle.

     Celandra and Casandia were hanging up a Snowflake Garland.

     “Bla?” Sadie appeared intrigued. She stared at them and wondered what they were up to. In excitement, Sadie flew over to the Snowflake Garland.

     “Huh? Sadie?” Casandia said. “Oh no! She doesn’t know how to control her flight very well yet!”

     The Faerie Darblat flew right into Celandra.

     “Argh!” Celandra shouted. She fell backwards and dragged the snowflake garland with her. It was attached to the pink curtains which then also came down with a loud crash. The noise startled Sadie and she promptly landed and waddled back toward Casandia. Celandra groaned a bit.

     Casandia hurried over and pulled Celandra back up. “I’ll help you clean up! Sorry!”

     “Uhh, thanks Casandia. I think Sadie needs take some flight lessons,” Celandra said.

     “Let’s try again,” Brynn suggested.

     —

     Hanso made his way upstairs and found a room with crown symbol on the door.

     “This must be her room,” Hanso thought.

     He took a breath and knocked.

     “I’ll be right there, Hanso!” Fyora said. A few moments later, Fyora opened the door. She had changed out of her dress into a more comfortable pink and white striped sweater and pink denim jeans.

     “I thought you were cleaning your coat. And how did you know it was me?” Hanso asked, looking very confused.

     “I changed first so I could be more comfortable. And I had a hunch I’d be seeing you again. Have a seat.”

     Hanso took a seat.

     “So, what brings you here?” Fyora asked. She smiled at Hanso, but her look was almost piercing.

     “I-I uh, wanted to help you clean your coat. Is there anything I could do? I’m not a magical individual of course.”

     Fyora went over and placed her hand on Hanso’s shoulder, leaned over, and began to speak.

     “Aw, that’s sweet of you, dearie. There is something you can help me with. I have started scrubbing out the stains. I just need you to finish it. Understood?”

     “Yes, Fyora.”

     With Fyora supervising, Hanso used a special magical cleaning liquid to try and remove the stains from Fyora’s coat.

     “Hanso, you missed a spot,” Fyora said, gesturing toward a stain. “I’ll get it.”

     “Ugh, sorry Fyora.”

     “No need be sorry. We are doing this together,” Fyora replied gently. “I truly appreciate your help, dear.” She reached over and hugged Hanso.

     Hanso and Fyora continued to scrub the stains and after a few minutes of quietly working, Fyora broke her silence.

     “You know, a special fashion designer in Neovia designed this fancy coat for me. I won’t tell you her name though. She’s not keen on any visitors and only chooses to design for a select few,” Fyora noted. “I know you don’t have a nice coat, but you do have a nice jacket. Where’d you get that?”

     “Well, I’m so glad you asked! I was on Krawk Island, in the Smuggler’s Cove.”

     “And you stole it?”

     Hanso scowled. “Huh? No! Why would I do that?”

     Fyora shrugged. “I’m sorry, I should not assume you stole everything, carry on.”

     “Well, some old jacket washed up on the shore. However, I noticed that the jacket never got wet. It was damaged though so I found a trusty tailor in Krawk Island to fix it. It wasn’t easy, they found out the fabric was magical and couldn’t be cut with normal scissors. The tailor soon realized the jacket used a special fabric that doubled as armour. It was some ancient magic or whatever. He found some water faerie that was able to advise the tailor on what to do. I don’t know all the details, but it’s a nice jacket that can deflect attacks!”

     “A water faerie? That specializes in armour? You cannot mean Nereid? She hasn’t shown up for ages.”

     “Well, he said it was a water faerie!”

     “Hmm, I would like to see this jacket when we get back to Faerieland. It looks like you are done with my coat now. It looks clean now.”

     “Oh! I guess it is.”

     “Well, thank you so much Hanso! Let’s go decorate with the others.”

     —

     A row of decorated Neggs cut in half sat on the dining table. Some of them had winter landscapes on them. There was at least one Faerie Queen Negg. Celandra carefully inspected each of them and nodded.

     “Ah, this will do well. Now we just need to put candles in them,” she said.

     “I have the candles!” Casandia said, handing a large blue bag to Brynn. Brynn opened them up nodded.

     “Good, we just need to light them.”

     Casandia placed a candle in each of them and Brynn helped light them with a match. They then arranged them on the windowsill. Fyora and Hanso came down and they started decorating the fir tree. Fyora added a few small faerie wing ornaments. Hanso chose to add a few Brightvale themed ornaments including one with a drawing of the Brightvale Castle and an ornament featuring a drawing of him with Brynn. Soon, the others began to help add additional ornaments until they couldn’t find space for anymore. At the very top, Celandra placed a Fyora figurine.

     “Why is it her at the top?” Hanso asked.

     “It’s her home,” Celandra replied.

     “Oh, these look cool!” Casandia added a few Hasee ornaments.

     “Alright, I do have some cute little necklaces I made for each of you,” Brynn said. She handed each of them a box. The necklaces were silver with small beads matching each ones’ favourite colour. And at the bottom was a small figurine of each individual.

     “Ohh! This one looks just like me when I’m reading!” Fyora exclaimed.

     “Ah! I’m hugging Sadie in this one! Sooo cute!” Casandia raved.

     “This one is of me in the Hidden Tower. I remember it just like yesterday when I first discovered it!” Celandra said, smiling.

     “Brynn, this looks just like you,” Hanso remarked.

     “I know! I have one of you for myself. Just in case you go on a long journey without me. You’ll have something to remind you of me!” Brynn replied.

     “AWWW!” Fyora said. “You two are so cute together!”

     At that moment, Fyora placed a knitted hat on Hanso’s head.

     “I have something for you all too. I think this looks great on Hanso!” she said.

     “Huh?”

     The hat was knitted with light blue yarn except there was a dark blue pattern that roughly looked like Hanso.

     “Thanks!” Hanso said. “It feels nice and warm.”

     Fyora then handed everyone else knitted hats too. Sadie also got a small hat. Fyora had knitted a small Darblat sliding down a hill onto it.

     “Bla! Blat!” Sadie said happily.

     “Aww! Thanks, Fyora!” Casandia exclaimed.

     “You’re welcome, it looks so pretty on her!” Fyora replied.

     Fyora then turned to Hanso.

     “You know, Hanso, I spent extra time on this hat because, well, you don’t have one. Everyone in my faerie family needs a knitted hat.”

     “Family? I’m not a faerie though.”

     “You don’t have to be. But now since you are a member of the faerie family, I expect to see you at every faerie event. That includes Fyora Day.”

     “Darn! Erm! I mean, great! I can’t wait!”

     “Also, if you want to fit in more, I do have a Faerie Paint Brush with your name on it!”

     “No! No thanks!”

     Fyora and the others laughed.

     “Don’t you worry, I will only paint you if you want it. You have my word that I won’t sneak you into the Rainbow Pool while you are asleep.”

     “Brynn! Do something!”

     Brynn tried not to giggle. “Hanso, she’s joking.”

     “Only half joking. Anyways, Hanso, happy winter starlight. I’m sure the next few days with us will be fun!” Fyora said.

     The End.